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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Hockey and pink ukeleles

No, they don't really have anything to do with each other, except that I'm learning both. I've managed to go skating three times this winter, and actually play, badly, in the Thanksgiving EHL kids vs. grownups hockey game down at the Ester Community Park. Fell down and bruised the palm of my hand, but otherwise did pretty good. And I had fun. The kids were amazingly good. Fast, agile, bouncing back up as soon as they fell down--hoo! I don't think anybody was keeping score, but I bet they won.

And on the pink note (har har), Hannah loaned me her disgustingly girly-pink ukelele to practice on. She's been practicing for a week and a half, two weeks, and I started practicing on Friday. I got all the way through "Plastic Jesus" and "The Lumberjack Song" yesterday night. I've tried several instruments: the piano, the flute, the guitar, the thumb harp (not the mouth harp, the other kind with three or four keys), the kazoo--never stuck to the practicing part, so of course I never really learned how to play any of them. We'll see how I do on the ukelele.

I never much liked Hawaiian ukelele music, but I love slack key guitar, and I found a blog all about blues and rock ukelele, which gives me hope. Also, being able to play songs like Plastic Jesus makes me much more inclined to keep going with this instrument. I mean, the thing is PINK, and I can play with Hannah, and I have suitably tongue-in-cheek tunes available to me. I don't have to take myself seriously.

Which is good, because it's very hard for me to look at a ukelele and be daunted, the way I am with a piano or a guitar.